The Ravenous by Amy Lukavics

October17 book for Poison Apple Book Club

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"The Cane sisters would like to have you for dinner."

"From the outside, the Cane family looks like they have it all. A successful military father, a loving mother and five beautiful teenage daughters. But on the inside, life isn't quite so idyllic: the Cane sisters can barely stand each other, their father is always away, and their neglectful mother struggles with addiction and depression.

When their youngest and most beloved sister, Rose, dies in a tragic accident, Mona Cane and her sisters are devastated. And when she is brought back from the dead, they are relieved. But soon they discover that Rose must eat human flesh to survive, and when their mother abandons them, the sisters will find out just how far they'll go to keep their family together." (goodreads)


I have been excited for The Ravenous for what feels like forever, since Amy Lukavics first announced it. Said to be The Virgin Suicides meets Pet Sematary, as soon as I read the above description for the book it was just a waiting game until I could get my hands on it, and it did NOT disappoint.

Ok, so there are a lot of Cane sister's so here is a quick cheat sheet on who is who in the family:

Juliet is the oldest sister. She is nineteen years old and gave up a full ride to Julliard playing the piano to help take care of her sisters since their mother isn't the most involved. Juliet is kind of like the mother figure of the family, the sisters fear her and she is known to be pretty aggressive sometimes (mentally and physically).

Taylor is seventeen years old and purposely lives in Juliet's shadow. She looks up to her older sister as a role model and tries to please her anyway she can. She dresses and acts like Juliet but no matter how hard she tries she never seems to get the love from Juliet she wants and is treated just as an obedient puppet.

Ayna is sixteen years old and use to have a very close relationship with Mona before they had a falling out. She doesn't seem to be every involved with the family and spends most of her time on her cell phone, probably talking to her girlfriend, Everly. Ayna also sneaks away to get high in her closet.

Mona is fifteen years old and the main character in the story. Her loyalty to her mother is so strong but the stress from her life an family causes her to steal alcohol when she can and drink alone in the bathroom. Even though she does not want to turn into her mother is often find the only way to cope is to get drunk. Mona has only one friend in the world, a girl named Lexa who even though she has never met knows her better than anyone else in the world.

Rose is the youngest sister, who at the beginning of the novel celebrates her twelfth birthday. The sisters all love Rose and her alone is what keeps the family together. All the sisters would do anything for Rose, no matter the consequences..

Since the incident involving Rose on her twelfth birthday, the family was devastated. When Rose is brought back from the dead, everyone is shocked and has no idea how to deal with Rose, who is constantly starving but refuses to eat anything. When their mother disappears, the girls pull together and take matters into their own hands, and discover that Rose needs human flesh. Rose stresses that she needs to be fed because if she gets too hungry something very bad will happened, she doesn't know what she just gets that feeling. Juliet makes the decision that all the sisters are going to have to pull together to pull off the perfect murder, to fed Rose and not get caught. They only plan to do it once, but what will happen the next time Rose gets hungry..

This book was so enjoyable and intense. It sounds like a perfect disaster and there are so many moments that you just want to scream or look away. I loved the pace of this book, the characters were all so interesting and you developed a love/hate relationship with them. The novel tired up unexpectedly in a way I wanted it to end but never would have thought the author would go there. It was fantastic and I loved every minute of this novel.

The Ravenous was a perfect October/ Halloween read and I really enjoyed reading it for this months pick for Poison Apple Book Club, and looking forward for a group discussion.

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars